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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, everybody. If all of you guys had an
Speaker 1: incredible weekend, we got a jam pack show for you today.
Speaker 1: We are continuing our power rankings with number eight the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers. We also have a mail bag for
Speaker 1: the tail end of the show. Today is NBA Media Day,
Speaker 1: so all sorts of different quotes are gonna be floating around.
Speaker 1: We're gonna kind of wait and put all of those
Speaker 1: together for our next episode. So our next episode we
Speaker 1: will go into anything interesting from NBA Media Day, but
Speaker 1: today again. Mail bag at the end, Lakers off the top.
Speaker 1: Also keep that in mind for mailbag questions for the
Speaker 1: Wednesday show. Drop any questions you have about anything related
Speaker 1: to Media Day and we'll kind of stay centered around
Speaker 1: that on Wednesday. You guys are the job. Before we
Speaker 1: get started, subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't
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Speaker 1: at underscore jsonlt so you guys don't miss you announcements.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcast on our Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mail
Speaker 1: bag questions in the YouTube comments. We can keep hitting
Speaker 1: them throughout the rest of year. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So number eight the Los Angeles Lakers, little
Speaker 1: offseason recap for you guys. They lost Spencer Dinwiddie and
Speaker 1: Torrian Prince. They added Brownie James, a second round pick
Speaker 1: that has some NBA potential, but I don't think he's
Speaker 1: good enough to be a rotation player yet probably a
Speaker 1: few years away on that front. Dalton connect was their
Speaker 1: first round pick, does some things at an NBA level
Speaker 1: right away. He's a lights out shooter off the catch
Speaker 1: on pretty high volume. At Tennessee last year he got
Speaker 1: one point twenty four points per catch and shoot jump shot.
Speaker 1: It's really really good. Has some scoring chops too, just
Speaker 1: like you know, scoring is a kind of a vague
Speaker 1: term that I use to describe anything that's kind of
Speaker 1: in between. So like if you imagine a driving layup
Speaker 1: or a finish off of a cut underneath the basket,
Speaker 1: or a catch and shoot jump shot, those are all
Speaker 1: shots that are more like play finishing types of moves. Right,
Speaker 1: Scoring is like everything in between. Whenever the offense or
Speaker 1: the defense I should say, is taking away the rim
Speaker 1: and taking away those catch and shoot threes, any sort
Speaker 1: of additional opportunity to score the basketball, I think kind
Speaker 1: of floats into that category. Right to me, it's a
Speaker 1: combination of a bunch of different things. Audacity, you gotta
Speaker 1: be crazy enough to take tougher shots, creativity against good defense.
Speaker 1: There are like opportunities to take creative types of shots
Speaker 1: and angles of release and stuff. Like that in that
Speaker 1: mid range area. Also at the basket when you're running
Speaker 1: into traffic. Athleticism, the ability to get to your spots footwork,
Speaker 1: which is the ability to actually get your body moving
Speaker 1: towards that spot and in there in a way that
Speaker 1: actually you can flow into a shot that's a footwork
Speaker 1: element right and then touch right the actual ability to
Speaker 1: make shots. All that stuff kind of combines into the
Speaker 1: organic scoring ability that you have, and Dalton has some
Speaker 1: good natural scoring ability, like he can create his own
Speaker 1: shot off the bounce when he needs to in those
Speaker 1: situations where the easy stuff isn't there, and Tennessee relied
Speaker 1: on him a lot and that specifically. He's also a
Speaker 1: good athlete in transition, like when you get him running
Speaker 1: in a straight line, he can hang with the best.
Speaker 1: But he's a really bad defender at this point. So
Speaker 1: whether or not he can actually be a rotation player
Speaker 1: right away, we'll come down to that end of the
Speaker 1: floor and how quickly during training camp he can find
Speaker 1: a role that JJ Reddick can trust him to do
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. If he can
Speaker 1: get that up pretty quickly, I think he'll be a
Speaker 1: big time rotation player for the Lakers this year. If not,
Speaker 1: they might have to look into another direction. They also
Speaker 1: had a couple of interesting deals on the margins. They
Speaker 1: got Christian KloCo on a two way deal. Once upon
Speaker 1: a time he was an exciting defensive center prospect, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers don't really have a center that can roughly
Speaker 1: approximate what ad does Jason excuse me, Jackson Hayes is
Speaker 1: more of like an offensive minded center, screen and roll guy.
Speaker 1: Christian Wood is more of like a scoring center, a
Speaker 1: pick and pop guy. So like, neither of those guys
Speaker 1: are what I would consider defensive anchors. And so if
Speaker 1: Christian KloCo can give them some, you know, a different
Speaker 1: look at that backup center position, that might be useful.
Speaker 1: And then Jordan Goodwin comes over on an exhibit ten deal.
Speaker 1: It's a training camp deal. He's the reason why I'm
Speaker 1: putting him in here is he's a stocky, athletic guard
Speaker 1: and this is a guard corps that sorely lacks that
Speaker 1: specific archetype of guard like Jordan Goodwin can pressure the
Speaker 1: ball well, he's a physical defender, he rebounds well for
Speaker 1: a guard. He's kind of like a dirty work guy.
Speaker 1: And in addition, to that. He also shot the ball
Speaker 1: pretty well last year when he was open. Didn't shoot
Speaker 1: well when he was contested, but when he was open
Speaker 1: he shot thirty nine percent on unguarded catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots in Phoenix and forty seven percent on unguarded
Speaker 1: catch and shoot jump shots in Memphis. So he kind
Speaker 1: of fits more of the mold of like a like
Speaker 1: a role player athlete guard and on a team that
Speaker 1: doesn't really have that sort of player. I think that's
Speaker 1: a guy that might be an interesting dude to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on in training camp to see if he
Speaker 1: can't grab a start a roster spot. A couple other
Speaker 1: guys too. These guys were already on the but that
Speaker 1: didn't play much last year. Max Christy just never got
Speaker 1: favor with Darvin Ham so never got consistent opportunity. I
Speaker 1: expect him to get consistent opportunity this year. Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: was just hurt all year last year. I expect him
Speaker 1: to get hopefully if he's healthy, to be an addition
Speaker 1: to the team this year. Gave Vincent was available for
Speaker 1: the postseason but was kind of a shell of himself
Speaker 1: and was injured all year. So like just having those
Speaker 1: guys re enter the rotation via health and opportunity are
Speaker 1: what I would consider to be basically like kind of
Speaker 1: changes to the roster compared to last year. Those are
Speaker 1: all minutes, All those minutes that Dalton connect would play,
Speaker 1: all those minutes that Jordan Goodwin would potentially play if
Speaker 1: he made the roster, Max Christy, Jared Vanderbilt gave Vincent.
Speaker 1: Those are all minutes last year that we're going to
Speaker 1: Tory and Prince Spencer Dinwittie like, those are the types
Speaker 1: of Cam Reddish was getting a lot of those minutes too.
Speaker 1: Those are minutes that are going to be shifted towards
Speaker 1: different players this year. Now, looking at the Lakers and
Speaker 1: their outlook for this year, the strength of this Lakers
Speaker 1: team as their starting lineup, it's a seamless offensive fit
Speaker 1: with those With those five guys, again, we're talking Austin Reeves,
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell, Ruey Chamura, Lebron James, and Anthony Davis, who
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick has basically come out straight up and said,
Speaker 1: these are the guys I'm starting with. Right makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense offensively. You have these two really skilled
Speaker 1: guards with these two really versatile forwards that can function
Speaker 1: both on or off the ball, like screening and rolling
Speaker 1: or post up Folkrum's Lebron and Ady can both attack
Speaker 1: out of the posts, that can both attack in ISO situations.
Speaker 1: But they're just very versatile forwards that kind of counter
Speaker 1: what the skill guards bring. And then Ruy Hachimura has
Speaker 1: kind of found his little niche as a master of
Speaker 1: weak side scoring, meaning like a lot of attacking and
Speaker 1: spot up situations. He got one point one to six
Speaker 1: points per spot up possession last year that was in
Speaker 1: the eighty third percentile. He also scored on a cut
Speaker 1: sixty times last year, which was by far the most
Speaker 1: in his career to this point. Just we kind of
Speaker 1: did a breakdown of this when we did our JJ
Speaker 1: Reddick video the other day, But the gist of it
Speaker 1: is knocking down three point shots on skip passes, but
Speaker 1: also identifying when they are opportunities to cut along the baseline.
Speaker 1: And one of the other things you'll see that happens
Speaker 1: with the Lakers is if you've got let's say you've
Speaker 1: got big, strong players in your starting lineup, where are
Speaker 1: the first two of them going. They're going to Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis and Lebron James, so Ruy Hachimura is going to
Speaker 1: be guarded by your third best ford defender, and that
Speaker 1: usually is a player that Ruy can look to attack
Speaker 1: in matchup situations. It was mixed results on that last year,
Speaker 1: but it was something that they went to quite a bit.
Speaker 1: The Lakers switched to that starting lineup on January twenty first,
Speaker 1: after not using it all season, not even for a
Speaker 1: single minute. That was one of the many things that
Speaker 1: went south for Darvin Ham last year. But from January
Speaker 1: first forward, that team with the starting lineup intact, so
Speaker 1: with all five players playing, they went twenty three to ten.
Speaker 1: That's a seventy percent win percentage, or another way of
Speaker 1: looking at that as a fifty seven win pace. As
Speaker 1: a team overall, including the games where guys missed time,
Speaker 1: they went twenty six and thirteen from January twenty first.
Speaker 1: That was the fifth best record in the NBA, and
Speaker 1: they were third in offensive rating behind only Boston and Indiana.
Speaker 1: So really scored the basketball well, really found their groove
Speaker 1: as a basketball team last year. The Lakers were also
Speaker 1: one of the best teams in the league in high
Speaker 1: leverage matchups, so whenever they played really good teams, so
Speaker 1: the teams that were in the top ten in point differential.
Speaker 1: They had seventeen wins against teams in the top ten
Speaker 1: in point differential that was tied for the most in
Speaker 1: the NBA with the Boston Celtics. They also had the
Speaker 1: sixth best net rating in games against teams that were
Speaker 1: in the top ten in point differential. So when they
Speaker 1: needed to get up for good teams, Lebron and ad
Speaker 1: were always great. The role players stepped up, and they
Speaker 1: were actually were very successful against the NBA's best last year. Now,
Speaker 1: the season obviously came to an end in the first round.
Speaker 1: They had a weird playoff series against the Denver Nuggets,
Speaker 1: very different from the series two years ago. The series
Speaker 1: two years ago, it was like the Lakers were hanging
Speaker 1: on for dear life, but they would somehow just kind
Speaker 1: of keep it close and then Denver would just consistently
Speaker 1: out execute them at the end of the of the game.
Speaker 1: Right this year was much more of like the Lakers
Speaker 1: actually controlled the series. They led for the vast majority
Speaker 1: of the time in the five games they led for
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact percentage of the time, but
Speaker 1: it was like three fourths of the series they led
Speaker 1: and then just in clutch time, the Lakers could not
Speaker 1: get a stop. They gave up a one to sixty
Speaker 1: three offensive rating in clutch situations to the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray hits two game winners and Denvers dispatches them
Speaker 1: in five. So it's kind of a weird series because
Speaker 1: Denver wins in five, which is kind of what most
Speaker 1: people saw happening before the series. But the Lakers were
Speaker 1: way more competitive in that series, and I actually thought
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways led to some of the
Speaker 1: wear and tear, just with their paint on slot that
Speaker 1: kind of led to them eventually running out of gas
Speaker 1: in that Minnesota series. So the Lakers have a strong
Speaker 1: foundation if two of the top ten players in the league.
Speaker 1: They were great offense for the second half of the year,
Speaker 1: devastating paint attack. They were second points in the paint
Speaker 1: per game, which is interesting because Lebron is the only
Speaker 1: player on the team that really drives to the rim.
Speaker 1: But it's a great example of how you don't need
Speaker 1: to drive to get paint attempts, like posting up is
Speaker 1: the way to get paint attempts. Rolling to the rim,
Speaker 1: cutting to the rim, offensive rebounding, those are all these
Speaker 1: different ways you can get rim attempts right now, the Lakers,
Speaker 1: it was mostly cutting, rolling, and posting, but they use
Speaker 1: those three things to get a lot of shots in
Speaker 1: the pain. But the Lakers have some major weaknesses, and
Speaker 1: there are three of them that I want to get
Speaker 1: into today. First of all, the starting lineup does not
Speaker 1: have a professional two way player next to Lebron and
Speaker 1: ad d Lo is incapable of filling an on ball
Speaker 1: defensive role, and he's mediocre at best off the ball,
Speaker 1: so he not a whole lot you can do with
Speaker 1: him defensively. Ruey is pretty much bad at everything on defense.
Speaker 1: He doesn't rebound well for a forward, which is disappointing
Speaker 1: because he's bigger and stronger. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: players at his position. Doesn't rebound well, he does not
Speaker 1: chase perimeter players around very well. And then if you
Speaker 1: need him to defend bigger players, he's not really good at,
Speaker 1: like actually using his strength defensively. Gives ground too easily
Speaker 1: instead of holding his ground and absorbing contact, which players
Speaker 1: will just go right at him and get a lot
Speaker 1: of and ones and stuff like that. Like Rui's just
Speaker 1: doesn't really know how to use his physical gifts on defense,
Speaker 1: yet I think he's a pretty bad defender at this
Speaker 1: point in his career. Austin is solid, he does his job,
Speaker 1: he competes, but he's currently slotted as their primary point
Speaker 1: of attack defender. He is guarding the other team's best
Speaker 1: guard every single night, and that's just not a smart
Speaker 1: way to use Austin, And that's the main reason why
Speaker 1: they couldn't get stops against Denver. They actually did a
Speaker 1: good job in the large sample that lineup. The starting
Speaker 1: lineup had a one to ten defensive rating in almost
Speaker 1: four hundred minutes in the regular season. That's a solid
Speaker 1: defensive rating. They defended Denver well statistically, they held him
Speaker 1: below one hundred and fourteen points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: For against a team like Denver, you're holding a well
Speaker 1: below their typical offensive output. That's solid, but it was
Speaker 1: mostly fools gold in the large sample because ad was
Speaker 1: just cleaning up a lot of messes and helping keep
Speaker 1: the metrics down a little bit. And it's a reminder
Speaker 1: of why metrics in the large sample can only mean
Speaker 1: so much. Metrics in a large sample will help us
Speaker 1: understand some concepts, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we have to look at what actually is going on
Speaker 1: on the floor to see where the specific matchup weaknesses are.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing is like whenever Denver needed to score,
Speaker 1: they were immediately able to comfortably get wherever they needed
Speaker 1: to get on the floor and get a good look.
Speaker 1: That's why they had that one to sixty three offensive
Speaker 1: rating against the Lakers in clutch situations. Even further, going
Speaker 1: beyond the Denver matchup, they always struggled against teams that
Speaker 1: had a lot of perimeter speed. So like the Warriors
Speaker 1: torched them one twenty six offensive rating in the regular season,
Speaker 1: the Pacers a one to twenty two offensive rating in
Speaker 1: the regular season, the Kings a one to twenty offensive
Speaker 1: rating in the regular season. All three of those teams
Speaker 1: combined to go eight to two against the Lakers. So
Speaker 1: teams that perimeter defense is like a prerequisite to be
Speaker 1: able to contain the ball, they really struggled with right
Speaker 1: so to put it nicely, like I just don't think
Speaker 1: the Lakers are good enough defensively right now to get
Speaker 1: to where they want to go, similar to Milwaukee right
Speaker 1: like Milwaukee right now is not good enough defensively to
Speaker 1: get where they want to go, which is to win
Speaker 1: four playoff rounds. So for both of those teams for
Speaker 1: the eight and nine in my power rankings list, and
Speaker 1: I would even extend that to ten with Phoenix. They
Speaker 1: they're not. They just at some point this season, either
Speaker 1: via trade or by in house development or just a
Speaker 1: certain young guy popping, they need substantial improvement in their
Speaker 1: defensive ability and versatility, meaning their matchup resilience. All three
Speaker 1: of those teams need to now. For the Lakers specifically,
Speaker 1: I think it's more so going to be via trade,
Speaker 1: but we will get more into that later. Second major weakness,
Speaker 1: can they withstand an injury to Anthony Davis? Lebron in
Speaker 1: the regular season is kind of inconsistent with his effort,
Speaker 1: so I think they can kind of live without him
Speaker 1: some nights. The skill guards, I'm not too worried about,
Speaker 1: Like as long as two of those three are available,
Speaker 1: Like if Austin's out but Dlo and Lebron are playing,
Speaker 1: or Lebron's out but Dlo and Austin are playing, Delos
Speaker 1: out but Austin and Lebron are playing, I feel like
Speaker 1: they've got a chance to score enough to win games.
Speaker 1: But as of right now, if Ad were to miss
Speaker 1: some time, they have like basically no shot of putting
Speaker 1: together even an average defense because they're so weak on
Speaker 1: the perimeter and they just don't have the interior kind
Speaker 1: of like backup centered guy that kind of mimics like
Speaker 1: I talked earlier about like roughly approximating, I don't mean
Speaker 1: an impact Christian KloCo would never in a million years
Speaker 1: be able to replace what AD does. But if you
Speaker 1: have a guy that is the rough approximation, then at
Speaker 1: least you can run the same scheme and at least
Speaker 1: hope to have a certain floor defensively. And Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: and Christian Wood are just not those guys. And you know,
Speaker 1: we'll see you Christian Cloco, but he's a complete and
Speaker 1: total wild card at this point. So, like, I think
Speaker 1: it's more of a regular season issue. I don't think
Speaker 1: the backup center spot is as important for the playoff context,
Speaker 1: because if you're healthy and you're in the playoffs, AD's
Speaker 1: playing forty two minutes a night, and like I think
Speaker 1: if you had to play Jackson Hayes six minutes a night,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's gonna make or break your playoff hopes.
Speaker 1: But in the regular season if Anthony Davis has to
Speaker 1: miss a chunk of time. That's where I'm concerned about
Speaker 1: their lack of depth at the center position. Now, encouragingly,
Speaker 1: they have acknowledged as much in the last week that
Speaker 1: that's something they need to do. My guess is that
Speaker 1: if they ended up making a deal, it'd be more
Speaker 1: of like a combo deal, either like two deals or
Speaker 1: one deal with one team to bring back multiple players
Speaker 1: where they look to upgrade at starting spot and bring
Speaker 1: up a backup center. But we'll talk about some options
Speaker 1: there down the line. Their third, big, biggest weakness is
Speaker 1: there enough talent on the bench to carry the Lakers
Speaker 1: through eighty two games. Let's take the starters out for
Speaker 1: a second, because that's how the Lakers were winning. They
Speaker 1: were winning because they had this great starting lineup that
Speaker 1: was the driving force of the majority of their success.
Speaker 1: If you took a look at their depth chart after
Speaker 1: the starters, it's a little thin ball handling guards, guys
Speaker 1: that can run action. Gabe Vincent. He's a good player
Speaker 1: in Miami, but he was hurt all year last year,
Speaker 1: so he was a little bit of a wildcard, right.
Speaker 1: Jalen Hood Shafino. He didn't look like an NBA player
Speaker 1: last year. Those are the only two ball handling guards
Speaker 1: that they have off the bench off ball wings, so
Speaker 1: these are guys that are not necessarily going to run action,
Speaker 1: but can run action. But these are guys that are
Speaker 1: primarily looking to score off the ball and are like
Speaker 1: just kind of your typical off ball role players. Max Christy,
Speaker 1: I actually really like him as a three and D prospect,
Speaker 1: but this will be his first season in a real
Speaker 1: consistent role, so there's a little bit of a wild
Speaker 1: card there, right Dalton Connects, we talked about him earlier.
Speaker 1: Whether or not he can play, it comes down to
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. That's a wild card.
Speaker 1: Cam Reddish, I don't think he's good enough to be
Speaker 1: a rotation player on a serious NBA team. I've never
Speaker 1: been a big Cam Reddish fan. Maxwell Lewis doesn't look
Speaker 1: like an NBA player right now. So in the off
Speaker 1: ball wing category, you've got Max Christy I think is
Speaker 1: an okay option. Dalton connect who knows Cam Reddish, Maxwell
Speaker 1: Lewis not good options in my opinion. At the forward spot.
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt, who I really like, I actually am much
Speaker 1: higher on Vanderbilt than most, but he hasn't been available
Speaker 1: much since he got traded to the Lakers, so there's
Speaker 1: a question mark there, and that's it. There's not another
Speaker 1: bench forward. I mean, in theory, you could play Christian
Speaker 1: Wood as like a bench forward, but that's only in
Speaker 1: like specific matchups, and he brings his own issues. And
Speaker 1: then you have three backup centers. You have Jackson Hayes,
Speaker 1: Christian Wood, and Christian Coloco. So like, how many of
Speaker 1: those guys are reliable NBA rotation players. Just let's be optimistic.
Speaker 1: I think Max can. I think Max can guard bench
Speaker 1: guards and be a functional offensive player off the bench.
Speaker 1: I think Max is fine. I think Gabe is fine
Speaker 1: as a bench guard. Gab and Max two good options. Vando,
Speaker 1: when he's healthy, I think, is a solid bench rotation piece.
Speaker 1: I even think Vandal could start in place of Ruie.
Speaker 1: I would start him in place of Rui if Vanda
Speaker 1: was actually healthy. I think it gives more balance to
Speaker 1: that lineup. We'll talk more about that in a minute,
Speaker 1: but those are the only three. So I've got my
Speaker 1: five starters that are rock solid. I like that as
Speaker 1: a regular season unit. We could talk about their limitations
Speaker 1: in the playoffs we have, but I think if those
Speaker 1: five guys are healthy, I think they're going to stay
Speaker 1: afloat in the regular seat in and win enough games.
Speaker 1: And I have a prediction there that I'll talk about
Speaker 1: in a minute. But after that, I've got three ify
Speaker 1: next guys, right, Gabe, Max, and Van Doo for various reasons.
Speaker 1: Health for Gabe, health for vand oh youth for Max.
Speaker 1: But those are like my three best guys coming off
Speaker 1: the bench. And then I've got a lot of question marks.
Speaker 1: So a couple of specific things that would go a
Speaker 1: long way towards giving them a little bit more resilience
Speaker 1: are like, if Dalton Connect could prove himself to be
Speaker 1: a useful rotation player right away, that would be huge.
Speaker 1: Jalen Hood Shaffino if he could demonstrate why he was
Speaker 1: a first round pick to begin with, that would be huge.
Speaker 1: And then Christian KloCo, if he can give you a
Speaker 1: legitimate backup center that can be a defensive anchor. Those
Speaker 1: are three things that could that would go a long
Speaker 1: way towards swinging the Lakers bench talent, because then you
Speaker 1: look at it and it's like, if Dalton Connect can defend.
Speaker 1: If let's just say, let's say two of those three
Speaker 1: pop like Christian KloCo gives you a legitimate, defensive minded
Speaker 1: backup center that athletic and gives you a little bit
Speaker 1: of consistency there. And you have Dalton connect proved playable,
Speaker 1: and then Max Vando and gay Ball pan out. Then
Speaker 1: you've got ten good players. Now you've got something that
Speaker 1: you can work with. But there's definitely quite a bit
Speaker 1: of a swing factor at play in the Laker bench.
Speaker 1: There's a lot that could go either way there. Before
Speaker 1: we look a little bit more big picture, where can
Speaker 1: JJ Redick help this team? So I put down two
Speaker 1: specific things that I want to talk about. One regular
Speaker 1: season attention to detail. The Lakers were really good in
Speaker 1: big games against good teams last year, but they routinely
Speaker 1: dropped games against mediocre teams. They had specific bad stretches
Speaker 1: of basketball, like the I talked about in the large
Speaker 1: sample that stretch in late December early January where they
Speaker 1: went three and ten. They in the December January stretch,
Speaker 1: they lost to the Spurs, once, they lost to the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bulls, They lost to the Brooklyn Nets, they lost
Speaker 1: to the Utah Jazz, they just dropped a bunch of
Speaker 1: games to bad teams. But even within games, they had
Speaker 1: some bad habits, Like they had some bad stretches where
Speaker 1: they'd like let go of the rope for two or
Speaker 1: three minutes and just stop doing anything that they were
Speaker 1: supposed to do on both ends of the floor and
Speaker 1: then promptly blow a fifteen point lead or promptly go
Speaker 1: from a competitive game to now you're down by fifteen.
Speaker 1: This was especially bad at the end of quarters, where
Speaker 1: they would like end of the second or end of
Speaker 1: the first quarter, end of the third quarter, you would
Speaker 1: just see the Lakers being good spots and then they
Speaker 1: would just immediately drop a bunch of their advantage that
Speaker 1: they gained over the earlier portions of the game. That
Speaker 1: was an issue, and that was on darwn Ham. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, Darwin had a very relaxed, big picture attitude
Speaker 1: about everything. He let a lot of shit go throughout
Speaker 1: the season when he shoot it been holding guys more accountable,
Speaker 1: and so I think that we're going to see a
Speaker 1: sharper Lakers team and more disciplined Lakers team this year
Speaker 1: under JJ Redick. And then the second big piece is
Speaker 1: optimization of talent. I think JJ is going to bring
Speaker 1: some specific improvements on the offensive end in terms of
Speaker 1: spacing and shot diet. For spacing, Anthony Davis, I think
Speaker 1: is going to take more jump shots, JJ Reddick. This
Speaker 1: was actually one of the quotes from Media Day. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis said that JJ wants him to take more jump shots.
Speaker 1: But those of you guys who remember the Zach Low interview,
Speaker 1: JJ actually said to Zachlow that he has a theory
Speaker 1: about why Anthony Davis hasn't shot the ball very well,
Speaker 1: and he said he would share it with Zach down
Speaker 1: the line if it works out. I think what JJ's
Speaker 1: referencing there as attempts, I think he just thinks that
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis doesn't take enough jump shots to be a
Speaker 1: good jump shooter. I tend to agree. I think Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis needs to take more jump shots to be in rhythm,
Speaker 1: and I think JJ forcing him to take more jump
Speaker 1: shots will go a long way. Two other things on
Speaker 1: the space in front three man action, JJ's a big
Speaker 1: believer in running action. Three man action is just instead
Speaker 1: of running a ball screen, have another element to the
Speaker 1: ball screen, for instance, a double drag where you have
Speaker 1: two guys set the ball screen one guy roll one
Speaker 1: guy pops, a ram screen where someone screens down for
Speaker 1: the big before he comes up to set the screen,
Speaker 1: so you get more separation between the screener and the
Speaker 1: screen defender before the action. Spain pick and roll where
Speaker 1: you have a shooter backscreen for the roller as he's
Speaker 1: rolling to the basket. These are all drubble handoff actions
Speaker 1: like Chicago action or just any any like pistol. Anything
Speaker 1: that's going to bring three players into an interchange makes
Speaker 1: it harder for the defense to guard at the beginning
Speaker 1: of a possession, right, especially teams that like to switch.
Speaker 1: It's just harder to switch a three man action than
Speaker 1: a two man action. But there's a third element to
Speaker 1: the spacing piece, which is off ball. Off ball screening
Speaker 1: and cutting was something that the Lakers did better laster
Speaker 1: than they have in years past, but something that they
Speaker 1: still have a good amount of area for improvement, specifically
Speaker 1: with shooters relow Oka, like they got good at baseline
Speaker 1: cuts with whichever screener was not involved, whether that was
Speaker 1: Ruey or it was Lebron or was a d that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. But even beyond that, just not having
Speaker 1: guys stand off the ball would go a long way
Speaker 1: towards making them harder to guard. So between Ad being
Speaker 1: more of a jump shooter, more three man action, more
Speaker 1: off ball screening and cutting, I think those things will
Speaker 1: go a long way to loosen things up for their
Speaker 1: spacing and then their shot diet, just a more deliberate
Speaker 1: process of hunting quality rim attempts and quality catch and
Speaker 1: shoot attempts. The Lakers were an excellent three point shooting
Speaker 1: team after the lineup change in late January because they
Speaker 1: got great looks. They got a ton of shots at
Speaker 1: the rim and then easy catch and shoot shots after that.
Speaker 1: But they were still twenty sixth in attempts overall three
Speaker 1: point attempts. So they could turn a few of these
Speaker 1: mid range shots, a few of like the d Lo
Speaker 1: mid ranges, a few of the Austin mid ranges, a
Speaker 1: few of the Lebron and Ad mid ranges into rim
Speaker 1: attempts and quality catch and shoot looks that could just
Speaker 1: help an already good offense get a little better, Just
Speaker 1: squeeze a little bit more out of that sponge, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense. So everything for the Lakers and their
Speaker 1: ultimate potential, though, will come down to whether or not
Speaker 1: they hit on a mid season trade. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: I think they're actually going to be fine in the
Speaker 1: regular season if they stay healthy. Here's my big prediction
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. If Lebron and ad are both healthy again,
Speaker 1: meaning if they both play seventy plus games, I think
Speaker 1: the Lakers are gonna win fifty plus games. I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in the starting lineup. Their offense is legit.
Speaker 1: It's low on variance, Like they attempt a ton of
Speaker 1: shots in the paint, and they attempt quality threes off
Speaker 1: of that, so they don't take like a ton of
Speaker 1: really difficult jump shots that can wildly oscillate back and
Speaker 1: forth in efficiency. The Lakers shot forty percent from three
Speaker 1: after the lineup change. How's the second best mark in
Speaker 1: the league over that span, while being the second best
Speaker 1: paint offense. I think that their paint attack and the
Speaker 1: way they play off of that is really reliable. I
Speaker 1: trust their offer. There's a basic stat to put that
Speaker 1: together for you guys. After January twenty first, when they
Speaker 1: made the lineup change, the Lakers attempted thirty two point
Speaker 1: five threes per game. Twenty eight point seven of them
Speaker 1: were classified as either open or wide open by NBA
Speaker 1: dot Com. They get great looks. That's why they shoot
Speaker 1: a high percentage, and it's because they're paint to great.
Speaker 1: They're paint first into an outside attack from there, and
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna even turn more of those mid
Speaker 1: range attempts into more threes. I think they're going to
Speaker 1: be a very efficient offense this year. Now, their offense
Speaker 1: does have some specific weaknesses because they don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of dribble penetration teams that do a lot of switching,
Speaker 1: like the Clippers, for instance, they have a tendency to
Speaker 1: cause the Lakers offense to bog down. Even in the
Speaker 1: wins the Lakers had against the Clippers last year, they
Speaker 1: were ugly for the large portion of the game as
Speaker 1: their offense looked a little stilted because of the switching.
Speaker 1: The way they have to attack switching is through Lebron
Speaker 1: and Ad leveraging their physical gifts, which they can be
Speaker 1: a little passive sometimes. Right. So, like they have some
Speaker 1: specific offensive weaknesses, but in the large sample, as long
Speaker 1: as they're healthy, I think their offense will carry them.
Speaker 1: I also think JJ will do a much better job
Speaker 1: of getting the most out of the Lakers as a
Speaker 1: regular season team, avoiding the self inflicted wounds that Darvin
Speaker 1: Ham did to the team last year. Better game to
Speaker 1: game preparation and game planning, better exploitation of margins that
Speaker 1: help you win. Those are the kinds of things that
Speaker 1: I think JJ is going to get out of this team.
Speaker 1: So again, if Lebron and Ady both play seventy plus games,
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers are gonna win over fifty and
Speaker 1: be a team that is firmly above the plan. That's
Speaker 1: my kind of prediction. Obviously, if everyone gets hurt, it's
Speaker 1: a different story. But I do believe in that starting lineup,
Speaker 1: and I think they're gonna be fine that set. Even
Speaker 1: if they do both play seventy plus games and let's
Speaker 1: say they go fifty two to thirty, I still think
Speaker 1: they can't win four playoff rounds unless they properly balance
Speaker 1: the starting lineup. I think the key is turning one
Speaker 1: of ruiy Ordll into a rock solid two way starter.
Speaker 1: I don't think it needs to be a star. I've
Speaker 1: gone back and forth with this over the past year.
Speaker 1: There are times in the regular season where I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: they could use just enough a really high level offensive
Speaker 1: player to just kind of make things easier for them.
Speaker 1: But Lebron and Ad just came on so strong at
Speaker 1: the end of the year, including the playoff run. We're like,
Speaker 1: I don't feel that way anymore. I think Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D are more than good enough right now to
Speaker 1: anchor a championship team. If you look at that Denver series,
Speaker 1: they didn't lose because Lebron and a D. I have
Speaker 1: actually said this before. I think Lebron and Ad played
Speaker 1: Yo Kitchen Murray to a draw, if not even slightly outplayed.
Speaker 1: Then they lost that series because Ruby got his lunch
Speaker 1: eaten by Michael Porter Junior and d lo is terrible.
Speaker 1: It was down the roster, guys like Michael Porter Junior,
Speaker 1: Contavious Cabo Pope, Aaron Gordon like. Down the roster was
Speaker 1: where the Lakers got beat. Lebron and AD stepped toe
Speaker 1: to toe with Yo Kitchen Murray and gave them the business.
Speaker 1: They got it back, but they they were they were
Speaker 1: going toe to toe with the duo that won the
Speaker 1: title last year. It was down the roster where they
Speaker 1: had those issues. And specifically it's about redundancy. D lo
Speaker 1: and on are redundant. Lebron and Ruie are redundant. That
Speaker 1: means there are responsibilities on the floor that go unfulfilled
Speaker 1: or go fulfilled by people that are not qualified for it.
Speaker 1: And then there are like there's too much of some
Speaker 1: things that you already have enough of, right, So, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers I think are well set up for a trade.
Speaker 1: They have two first round picks that they can use,
Speaker 1: and those are valuable first round picks because the Lakers
Speaker 1: are a dumpster fire organizationally, and so when Lebron retires,
Speaker 1: you can pretty much bet on them being bad for
Speaker 1: a while, right And so, Like, if they've got two
Speaker 1: first round picks that are desired around the league, and
Speaker 1: they've got mid level salaries to use, they've got lots
Speaker 1: of guys like Gabe and Van Dooh and Austin and
Speaker 1: Dilo and Rui that are all on these like mid
Speaker 1: level contracts between ten and twenty million. They're set up
Speaker 1: to be able to make a trade. So, now let's
Speaker 1: imagine what that looks like from the standpoint of the
Speaker 1: starter upgrade. And there's lots of examples. I've talked about
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown a lot. It really just needs to be
Speaker 1: a very athletic player that can guard the ball, rebound,
Speaker 1: and be a functioning cop in the five out attacks.
Speaker 1: Just a functioning cock doesn't need to be a high
Speaker 1: level offensive player. As a matter of fact, Like the
Speaker 1: Lakers have enough offensive talent and they started That's what
Speaker 1: I mean in their starting lineup. That's what I mean
Speaker 1: by the redundancy. They need somebody that kind of balances
Speaker 1: things a little bit. A couple other guys I'd look at.
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant. I'm actually higher on than most Laker fans.
Speaker 1: I know that people have some concerns about him playing
Speaker 1: some losing basketball in Portland and how well he fits
Speaker 1: next to Lebron and AD. I think he can help
Speaker 1: on offense. I think he is a better athlete than Ruie,
Speaker 1: and I love the idea of leveraging Jeremy's athleticism next
Speaker 1: to Lebron and AD. A couple other guys though, that
Speaker 1: I'd look out for, Like what if the Clippers season
Speaker 1: goes south and you go after a guy like Terrence Mann,
Speaker 1: Like what if James Harden gets hurt, Kwi Leonard gets hurt,
Speaker 1: Clippers are just bad, Clippers decide they want to rebuild.
Speaker 1: Terrence Man is twenty seven years old and is not
Speaker 1: a star, so like he's at that point an asset
Speaker 1: that the Clippers could look to move. I think Terrence
Speaker 1: Mann would be a beautiful fit next to Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: You can imagine Austin and Terrence and Ad is like
Speaker 1: a nice little core to kind of like look at
Speaker 1: the post Lebron era with not to mention he could
Speaker 1: help you in the short term as a potential ceiling
Speaker 1: raising move. Another guy like that if the Warriors season
Speaker 1: goes south. I like a guy like Andrew Wiggins at
Speaker 1: the three next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Once
Speaker 1: again that can guard the other team's best player and
Speaker 1: kind of layers athleticism on top of what Lebron and
Speaker 1: Ad bring to the table. I don't think that would
Speaker 1: happen unless the Warriors went south. But those are a
Speaker 1: couple of different things that you could keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: There are lower level moves you can look at too,
Speaker 1: like I wouldn't be surprised if a team like Minnesota
Speaker 1: decides that they want to offload one of their guards.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't now that they've brought in Dante DiVincenzo and
Speaker 1: they have Nikhil Alexander Walker already as kind of like
Speaker 1: a backup guard a team like Orlando, now that they've
Speaker 1: brought in KCP, what about a guy like Gary Harris,
Speaker 1: just like an athletic, like just a rock solid type
Speaker 1: of role player guard I think would go a long
Speaker 1: way towards helping at the two or the similar version
Speaker 1: at the three, though, regardless of what that player is,
Speaker 1: and those are a bunch of example. Let's just take
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown for example. Let's pretend that the Lakers make
Speaker 1: a deal for Bruce, and I can't remember the exact
Speaker 1: functionality of the deal, it'd be like it'd be like
Speaker 1: d Loo and Jalen hoods Chafino and like Cam Reddish
Speaker 1: and like a first or something like that. Let's say
Speaker 1: you make that deal from there. Now, let's pretend it's
Speaker 1: Austin Bruce and then ruy lebron Ad. Now I can
Speaker 1: put Bruce on the other team's best offensive player. Now
Speaker 1: Austin is guarding the other team's second best offensive player.
Speaker 1: Now overall, I took the worst athlete in the lineup,
Speaker 1: de Lo, and I put him the third best athlete
Speaker 1: in the lineup, a guy who's firmly a better athlete
Speaker 1: than Ruy and Austin. Right now, I'm bigger, I'm stronger,
Speaker 1: I'm more athletic. In the backcourt, I'm tiered better in
Speaker 1: terms of my point of attack assignments. Bruce is a
Speaker 1: seamless fit offensively as like a screener and roller, a
Speaker 1: guy that can kind of do a lot of the
Speaker 1: similar stuff that Alex Cruso did with the lebron A
Speaker 1: D front court back in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty Like,
Speaker 1: I like that sort of fit. Now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'm infinitely more imposing physically, I'm infinitely more balanced. Again,
Speaker 1: Like a lot of people talk about, like how is
Speaker 1: it that this trade could move the needle or that
Speaker 1: trade can move the needle. It all depends on what
Speaker 1: the team needs. If you have a gaping hole in
Speaker 1: a specific skill set and you feel that you're going
Speaker 1: to experience a dramatic return, if you have a small
Speaker 1: hole that you try to fit a big player into,
Speaker 1: you experience diminishing returns. For instance, Bradley Beal with the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns, the Sons are not benefiting from a lot
Speaker 1: of what Bradley Beal brings because they don't really need
Speaker 1: a lot of what Bradley Beal brings they need more of,
Speaker 1: like what a contavious cobb of Pope brings to the table. Right.
Speaker 1: That's kind of my point is, like, if you were
Speaker 1: to pick up and put Bradley be on a team
Speaker 1: that desperately needs guard play but is loaded in the
Speaker 1: front court, all of a sudden, he brings a lot
Speaker 1: more value. But it's all about what your roster needs.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have tons of offensive talent in a championship
Speaker 1: level front court. What they need is a specific type
Speaker 1: of athlete at the two or the three that can
Speaker 1: do the kinds of things that they were not getting
Speaker 1: from d Lo and Rui, which is quality defense on
Speaker 1: the opposing team's best perimeter player and defensive rebounding athleticism
Speaker 1: that just winning more of those physical battles that they
Speaker 1: had been losing over the previous years. That's why I'm
Speaker 1: such a big believer in that if you don't make
Speaker 1: a trade. So let's say, if you're like a Lakers
Speaker 1: fan and you're like, hey, Jason, we've heard Rob Polinka
Speaker 1: talk about how he doesn't want to make a trade
Speaker 1: unless it woul lead to sustain success. Let's say the
Speaker 1: Lakers are having a solid season where they're in the
Speaker 1: fourth or fifth seed, but the Lakers ownership in front office,
Speaker 1: they're just like, we're not going to invest in this group.
Speaker 1: We're gonna just hoard all these assets for the future. Okay,
Speaker 1: if that's the case, is there's still a pathway for
Speaker 1: the Lakers to get to four round wins to getting
Speaker 1: to the trophy. I think it's a very very very
Speaker 1: tiny path, but it would look different for starters. I
Speaker 1: still think you need balance in that starting lineup, so
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt would have to get healthy and take Ruey
Speaker 1: starting spot. That would be And again, Jared, the defensive
Speaker 1: end is easy. We've seen what Jared looks like guarding
Speaker 1: the other team's best player next to Anthony Davis in
Speaker 1: that front line. It looks awesome. They look great. Jared
Speaker 1: is great on the defensive end, like I think he's
Speaker 1: in that like fringe, first tier, second tier perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: in the league. Jared Vanderbilt's awesome on the ball, but
Speaker 1: on the offensive end he can be a nightmare. However,
Speaker 1: there's a tiny little pathway here in what the Lakers
Speaker 1: kind of got out of Jared Vanderbilt. Towards the tail
Speaker 1: end of the season last year before he got hurt,
Speaker 1: and Jared Vanderbilt's last eight games before he got hurt
Speaker 1: last year, he averaged eleven points per game on sixty
Speaker 1: six percent shooting. And it was just a totally different
Speaker 1: role than what we saw the year prior. The year prior,
Speaker 1: they were running four out, one in setup, spread, pick
Speaker 1: and roll, go stick Jared Vanderbilt in the opposite corner,
Speaker 1: and he's just shooting a three or crashing the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: That's all he was doing. And he couldn't make the
Speaker 1: threes a high enough clip or even be guarded really
Speaker 1: when he was over there, right, So like kind of
Speaker 1: a JANKI fit for him offensively in the Lakers' five
Speaker 1: out attack, he was running dribble handoffs and rolling and
Speaker 1: cutting the basket, and he was scoring and scoring effectively there. So, like,
Speaker 1: if they can replicate that in a large sample size,
Speaker 1: if Jared Vanderbilt comes into training camp and he gets
Speaker 1: healthy and he takes Rue's starting spot and he guards
Speaker 1: the other team's best player every night, and he plays
Speaker 1: seventy plus games and he becomes a functioning dribble handoff,
Speaker 1: cutting offensive rebounding kind of like offensive player within that unit.
Speaker 1: That would go a long way towards giving them a chance.
Speaker 1: But I think if Jared's gonna be in the starting lineup,
Speaker 1: I think in order for the Lakers to be a
Speaker 1: championship team, ad would have to rise to the level
Speaker 1: of the top your superstars by becoming the type of
Speaker 1: jump shooter that he was in the past. That's a
Speaker 1: long shot because we haven't seen it since twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: But like, if you're telling me, Jason, give me some hope, Jason,
Speaker 1: the Lakers aren't going to make a trade. I don't
Speaker 1: believe in Rob, I don't believe in Geenie. Give me
Speaker 1: some hope that the Lakers are going to get this
Speaker 1: done this year. It would come down to building a
Speaker 1: starting lineup that has more two way balance within the roster.
Speaker 1: That's going to require Jared Vanderbilt becoming healthy, getting his
Speaker 1: way into that lineup, and being the versatile two way
Speaker 1: player that they kind of got little bits and pieces
Speaker 1: of towards the tail end of the year last year.
Speaker 1: And then Anthony Davis just needs to become one of
Speaker 1: the top tier offensive players in the league by building
Speaker 1: up a jump shot long shot, So I think the
Speaker 1: best chance for the Lakers is to hit on a
Speaker 1: mid season trade. So, in summary, I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: are one of the most underrated teams in the league.
Speaker 1: Last year, they were really good for the most part
Speaker 1: of the season, with exception of a month that spanned
Speaker 1: from December and January. It is what it is. Laker
Speaker 1: fans just kind of got to get used to a
Speaker 1: lot of people underrating them on those grounds they were
Speaker 1: clawing up from the plan. So like anybody who's not
Speaker 1: really watching them closely is gonna use that as an
Speaker 1: excuse to think they're bad. Obviously, we know those of
Speaker 1: us who watched Lakers close last year, we know we
Speaker 1: know they were good all year. They had this one
Speaker 1: bad stretch. It is what it is. They have to
Speaker 1: prove it again this year, though. That's it. I do
Speaker 1: think that they're underrated. I think that if they are
Speaker 1: healthy that they are going to perform well. As I said,
Speaker 1: if Lebron and Ad are healthy for seventy plus games,
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna win fifty plus games and stay
Speaker 1: out of the plan. It's mostly about their stars. The
Speaker 1: Lakers top three is really good. Lebron and Ad were
Speaker 1: amazing last year. Austin Reeves is a rock solid championship
Speaker 1: level starter in my opinion, But like everyone else in
Speaker 1: this tier, they've got to address some things. They've got
Speaker 1: to have some things go right for them to win
Speaker 1: four playoff rounds. For the Lakers, it's about improved play
Speaker 1: at the two or the three, either in house or
Speaker 1: via trip. All right, that's all I have for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to our mail bag. First question, Jason,
Speaker 1: I'm a very sad Timberwolves fan after finding out we
Speaker 1: traded Cat. I'm trying to find the positives. Is it
Speaker 1: freeing up cap space? Apparently Dante and Randall have big contracts,
Speaker 1: so we're at a net worse off than before, or
Speaker 1: it could be something else. With no Cat, we were
Speaker 1: less equipped to take down Yokicchen the Nuggets. I need
Speaker 1: some help to cope. So here's the thing. I don't
Speaker 1: know how any Timberwolves fan would feel good about this
Speaker 1: deal in the short term, and the main reason why
Speaker 1: is like, if you go on a Western Conference finals
Speaker 1: run and you've got a star who's twenty two years old,
Speaker 1: or however, I think Aunt's only twenty two aunts young,
Speaker 1: but got a young star like Aunt that's on his
Speaker 1: way up, run it back, run it back and try
Speaker 1: it again and see what you can get done. That's
Speaker 1: what any team would do, right, So there's no doubt
Speaker 1: that like throwing a giant wrench in things. Because here's
Speaker 1: the thing. Even if you're of the opinion that Dante
Speaker 1: Devincenzo makes you better and Julius Randall's is just a
Speaker 1: better player than cat, even if you think that it's theoretical,
Speaker 1: we haven't seen it. And so like you take a
Speaker 1: team that made it to the Western Conference finals and
Speaker 1: you don't give them a chance to run it back,
Speaker 1: that's obviously frustrating. But there's a different way to look
Speaker 1: at it, and it's through the lens of the long term. Right, So,
Speaker 1: because Karl Anthony Towns had so much money left on
Speaker 1: his deal, because Julius Randall's a free agent after the season,
Speaker 1: because Rudy Gobert has a player option after the season,
Speaker 1: and who knows, maybe you can work out a longer term,
Speaker 1: more team friendly deal after that. Will see what ends
Speaker 1: up happening. But you go instantaneously into a much more
Speaker 1: flexible cap situation. I was a huge price to pay
Speaker 1: there and the price is now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: there's major question mark over this season, right, is this
Speaker 1: Julius Randall fit gonna work like? And look here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I've slept on it a few days now. I'd be
Speaker 1: lying to you guys if I didn't say I hated
Speaker 1: to Fit. I love Anthony Edwards. He's probably my favorite
Speaker 1: player in the league of this generation. Right like when
Speaker 1: the Lebron's Steph crew All retires an It's probably gonna
Speaker 1: be my favorite player. It'll be a different type of thing,
Speaker 1: and it won't be the type of emotional attachment I
Speaker 1: had to Lebron because I became a fan of his
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. But like Ant's gonna be
Speaker 1: my favorite player, I'm rooting for him. I want him
Speaker 1: to succeed. I think his best trait is that he's
Speaker 1: the best driver of the basketball in the NBA right now.
Speaker 1: And so I hate the idea of putting him next
Speaker 1: to Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randall, and Rudy Gobert. I think
Speaker 1: that's a three four five that is a disaster for
Speaker 1: spacing whenever Ant has the ball. So like, I'd be
Speaker 1: lying if I told you guys. I like the fit.
Speaker 1: That's it. There is upside. Dante DiVincenzo is a really
Speaker 1: good player that I think minnesot Or two roles fans
Speaker 1: are gonna love. And Julius Randall, when healthy and in rhythm,
Speaker 1: I think is a better shot creator than Karl Anthony Towns,
Speaker 1: which is a nice number two option to put next
Speaker 1: to hand. So there's upside, but there's risk. And so
Speaker 1: the way that I would look at it is Tim
Speaker 1: Conley basically is telling you that he wants to sacrifice
Speaker 1: a little bit of the right now, sure thing element
Speaker 1: that we saw from last year's Minnesota Timberwowls team and
Speaker 1: replace it with some long term flexibility while also maintaining
Speaker 1: some of the upside within this season. And that's the thing,
Speaker 1: because like, here's the deal. Let's say you run it
Speaker 1: back and you lose in the Western Conference finals again,
Speaker 1: and then you're in cap hell for a few years
Speaker 1: and there's not much flexibility for you to do anything,
Speaker 1: Versus maybe it goes south with the Julius Randall fit
Speaker 1: and you lose in the first round, but you have
Speaker 1: more ability to surround an with talent later. And again,
Speaker 1: this is where we have to kind of look at
Speaker 1: NBA history. NBA history tells us that even the all
Speaker 1: time greats, they don't really start to kind of figure
Speaker 1: things out at a championship level until twenty six, twenty
Speaker 1: seven years old, right, So it is more important for
Speaker 1: you to be flexible at that point. That said, I
Speaker 1: don't see any universe where in the short term. It's
Speaker 1: not annoying because again, you just went to the Western
Speaker 1: Conference Finals, you lost close games to Dallas and is
Speaker 1: just rapidly ascending. The defense was frightening, it was how
Speaker 1: you beat Denver. Karl Anthony Towns was a huge part
Speaker 1: of how you beat Denver. There's always going to be
Speaker 1: that part of me, and I'm sure lots of you
Speaker 1: Wolves fans that are like, why the hell didn't we
Speaker 1: run this thing back? But I think I just view
Speaker 1: it as a long term kind of attempts to try
Speaker 1: to maintain some of that flexibility. Like we talked about,
Speaker 1: I wanted to spend a little bit of a follow
Speaker 1: up talking about the Knicks just after thinking about that
Speaker 1: a little bit more. How do you put together a
Speaker 1: lineup without Dante Devencenzo and with Karl Anthony Towns on
Speaker 1: the floor with Mitchell Robinson kind of like out of
Speaker 1: the equation for now, but potentially rejoining the equation. There's
Speaker 1: a couple different options that they could go with. I
Speaker 1: talked about duce McBride in the show that we did
Speaker 1: on the actual night of another way to look at
Speaker 1: it would be Josh Hart potentially playing at the two.
Speaker 1: I don't like him at the point of attack as
Speaker 1: much as duce McBride. You could also kind of like
Speaker 1: kind of flip that and kind of have McHale Bridges
Speaker 1: functionally operate as your two guarding the other team's best guard,
Speaker 1: and then have Josh Hart function more as a three.
Speaker 1: You could also size up, like you could go with
Speaker 1: Precious to chew at the four and put him next
Speaker 1: to Kat with og and McHale Bridges, now you're just
Speaker 1: huge and rangey and athletic. There's I think that there's
Speaker 1: even a version of this when Mitchell Robinson comes back,
Speaker 1: where you just go big. There's been a lot of
Speaker 1: like people talking about like, oh, Kat as the rim protector,
Speaker 1: this isn't going to be enough, blah blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and it's like if you're good enough on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: I think that's not as big of a deal. But
Speaker 1: the other element of it, too, is what if you
Speaker 1: had a big look, like what if you went with
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns at the four, Mitchell Robinson at the
Speaker 1: five kind of like what Minnesota was using him as
Speaker 1: and you have this massive look, and look, there are
Speaker 1: gonna be lineups or matchups where you need more perimeter
Speaker 1: speed and that doesn't work. But like, I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer in championship teams need to have multiple looks. You
Speaker 1: need to have versatility. You need to be able to
Speaker 1: play a two big lineup, you need to be able
Speaker 1: to play a three guard lineup. You need to be
Speaker 1: able to have different looks that you can go to
Speaker 1: depending on what the game calls for. And so like,
Speaker 1: as far as the Knicks go, like to me, having
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns at the four the five, there are
Speaker 1: good problems to have because of all of the upside
Speaker 1: that Kat brings at a position group where you were
Speaker 1: originally very thin. But again, there's a bunch of different
Speaker 1: looks that they can go with. But those are just
Speaker 1: some examples. All right, let's look at I've got two
Speaker 1: more questions for you, guys. I got a, a Bucks one,
Speaker 1: and then a Celtics Jason Tatum question, Dude, if you
Speaker 1: drop the Bucks in the West, they would be the
Speaker 1: fourth best team and it wouldn't be close. The West
Speaker 1: is overrated. The MAVs got destroyed in the finals, and
Speaker 1: they took care of the now weakened Wolves. Other than
Speaker 1: those teams, the Nuggets and the Thunder are okay. Blazer, Spurs, Warriors, Lakers, Clippers, Rockets,
Speaker 1: Pelicans are all terrible, zero chance. I got a lot
Speaker 1: of Bucks fans in our last video that really want
Speaker 1: them to be referred to and respected as like a
Speaker 1: top tier championship contender. Guys, the Bucks won forty nine
Speaker 1: games last year in the East, with Damon Giannis both
Speaker 1: playing seventy three games. Like, I can't, in good conscience
Speaker 1: on a couple of veteran minimum signings bump up a
Speaker 1: forty nine win team to like top tier championship contender.
Speaker 1: And as far as the West East thing, I've said
Speaker 1: this before, but the West was six hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: in five eighty versus the East head to head last year.
Speaker 1: They were seventy games over five hundred head to head
Speaker 1: against the East. The West was so much better than
Speaker 1: the East. It was not close. I don't even know
Speaker 1: how that's argued at this point. Like uh, and again,
Speaker 1: like the Bucks played in the substantially easier conference where
Speaker 1: you got to play legitimately terrible teams three and four
Speaker 1: times in the season and won two more games than
Speaker 1: the Lakers. They were with Damion Giannis both playing in
Speaker 1: seventy three games. Like I'm a believer in the Bucks upside.
Speaker 1: I think they have potential to enter into the top
Speaker 1: tier contender tier if a bunch of things go right
Speaker 1: for them this season. But in my opinion, it's irrational
Speaker 1: to look at what we saw last year and think
Speaker 1: that they're one of those top teams in the league.
Speaker 1: It's just I'm I'm rooting for it. I want Dame
Speaker 1: to have a big bounce back year. I want Giannis
Speaker 1: to play like an MVP. I want Delon Wright to
Speaker 1: pan out. I want Gary Trent Junior to pan out.
Speaker 1: I want Torrian Prince is a good player. I think
Speaker 1: Bucks fans are gonna like him. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: upside there, but it's upside. It's theoretical. The reality is
Speaker 1: is Damianis played seventy three games last year and he
Speaker 1: won forty nine games in a very weak conference. So like,
Speaker 1: that's why right now the Bucks are just like the Lakers,
Speaker 1: just like the Suns, just like everyone else. There's potential,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of good that could happen, but it
Speaker 1: hasn't really materialized to this point. That's what this kind
Speaker 1: of group of teams is, if that makes sense. Last
Speaker 1: question and we'll get out of here for the night.
Speaker 1: What criteria do you believe Jason Tatum has to meet
Speaker 1: to be the MVP? In recent years, they've shown that
Speaker 1: being the best player on the best team is not enough,
Speaker 1: and I personally believe that his highest value is in versatility.
Speaker 1: With that being said, he's most likely not going to
Speaker 1: average thirty five like Luca Embiid. So what type of
Speaker 1: season do you foresee him needing to attain that award?
Speaker 1: That's what you would have to do. I mean, the
Speaker 1: thing is is like whenever you are like, there's like
Speaker 1: three different criteria that I've always used for my kind
Speaker 1: of interpretation of MVP, and I think it kind of
Speaker 1: loosely follows the way most media members look at it.
Speaker 1: But it's like, who's the best player in the league,
Speaker 1: Who's the best player on the best team in the league,
Speaker 1: and then like who's the most valuable, like who's specifically
Speaker 1: like writhing the engine, so to speak. And the problem
Speaker 1: is is like Tatum's gonna get hurt in two of
Speaker 1: those categories, Like nobody thinks he's on the tier of
Speaker 1: the top best players in the league, and nobody thinks
Speaker 1: he's specifically driving the Celtics bus because of how much
Speaker 1: talent they have. So like, in order for him to
Speaker 1: win the court of public opinion in terms of like
Speaker 1: winning over the voters, I shouldn't even say public opinion,
Speaker 1: media opinion. I think it would require him having a
Speaker 1: dominant season. He would need to look like one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the world while he's playing in
Speaker 1: the games. Then the Celtics would have to win over
Speaker 1: sixty five games. At that point, I think there would
Speaker 1: come a point where people would be like, this is unniable.
Speaker 1: This guy's playing like one of the best players in
Speaker 1: the league. This is the best team in the league.
Speaker 1: But the thing is is Jason Tatum more or less
Speaker 1: plays like a second tier superstar most of the time,
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing on a dominant team is
Speaker 1: just not going to win MVP votes. And so like,
Speaker 1: it is what it is. But like, if it was
Speaker 1: purely just who's the best player on the best team,
Speaker 1: you're right, he'd be in the I've received, But this
Speaker 1: is not how it works. And so like, if Tatum
Speaker 1: goes out this year and he just crushes from start
Speaker 1: to finish and hits a bunch of clutch shots and
Speaker 1: averages thirty two, ten and six and just kicks everyone's
Speaker 1: ass all year, I think there's a good chance that
Speaker 1: he wins MVP. But it's just that's kind of unrealistic,
Speaker 1: even within the scope of what the Celtics are trying
Speaker 1: to accomplish. They're very talented, They've got a ton of
Speaker 1: good players. They don't need Tatum to average thirty two
Speaker 1: and so the best. Here's the thing I've encountered a
Speaker 1: lot of This is the last thing I'll say about it.
Speaker 1: I've encountered a lot of this from Celtics fans, and
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, Like, I know that there's
Speaker 1: a large portion of you guys who are Celtics fans,
Speaker 1: who are reasonable and realistic and understand what's going on,
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of like complaining from Celtics fans
Speaker 1: about how much credit they're getting. How well regarded that
Speaker 1: team is how people view Jason Tatum in the hierarchy
Speaker 1: of the league, And it's like, here's the thing. Who
Speaker 1: cares what anybody else thinks. The best thing for Tatum
Speaker 1: and the Celtics to do is to go whoop everyone's
Speaker 1: ass and just rack up the accolades, just keep winning,
Speaker 1: keep stacking the chips, and then eventually everyone will have
Speaker 1: no choice but to acknowledge your greatness. Like, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, if you're worried that I think
Speaker 1: Tatum is the seventh best player in the league and
Speaker 1: you think he's the third, who gives a shit what?
Speaker 1: I think Tatum needs to go out there and win games,
Speaker 1: and if he does, he's gonna keep getting trophies. And
Speaker 1: is he keeps stacking up the trophies, it becomes undeniable, right,
Speaker 1: Like all of this stuff is just semantics at a
Speaker 1: certain point, this is just debate, and so like, that's
Speaker 1: the thing. I understand how you Celtics fans feel. You
Speaker 1: want Jason Tatum to get the credit that he deserves.
Speaker 1: You want everyone to acknowledge that team for what they accomplished.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day. Tatum's not going
Speaker 1: to get an MVP. It's very, very unlikely. So what's
Speaker 1: the best he can do. Go kick everyone's ass and
Speaker 1: get another lari O'Brian trophy and just stack him up,
Speaker 1: just stack him up again. Like there's the same thing
Speaker 1: happened to the Warriors with twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: like no one was given them a ton of credit
Speaker 1: because of how much talent they had, and it was
Speaker 1: a lot of talk about Katie joining the super Team
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. But you know what,
Speaker 1: you just rack up the titles and then you look
Speaker 1: back and it's like, well they have four of them now,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, like at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like if the Celtics are concerned about
Speaker 1: the what kind of media like acceptance they're getting, just
Speaker 1: focus on the ultimate goal and then at a certain point,
Speaker 1: no one will be able to deny how good you are.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, That is all I have for today
Speaker 1: is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We'll be back on Wednesday with another team as well
Speaker 1: as some another season preview, as well as some media
Speaker 1: day reaction. I will see you guys, then the volume.
Speaker 1: What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.